Monday, 3 September 2012

From Shirt to Skirt ~ Tutorial...

Take a man's shirt, add a ruffle and a few buttons and you have a cute, little girl's skirt. This tutorial will show you just how easy this refashion is.

I used a man's cotton dress shirt, buttons from a woman's cardigan and some fabric from my stash for the ruffle.

The front of this shirt has rows of pintucks sewn with different coloured threads. They only show on the inside of the shirt. The outside of the shirt shows the pintucks as seams. I want to feature the pintucks, so I am turning the fabric around and am using the inside of the shirt as the outside of the skirt.

The seams on the shirt are flat felled, so both sides look OK.

You will need to take two measurements before you begin.

waist

waist to calf (or desired length of the skirt)

Materials:

man's dress shirt

3/4" elastic

fabric for ruffle

buttons

Cut shirt:

Cut the shirt at the underarm.

Cut off the curved edge at the bottom

Close buttonhole placket:

Remove buttons

Stitch the buttonhole placket closed with two rows of stitching. I have used a contrasting coloured thread to fit in with the coloured threads on the pintucks.

Casing for the elastic:

Turn under 1/4" and press or stitch.

Turn 1.5".

Baste (hand sew) to hold in place.

Stitch as close as you can to the hem of the casing, leaving a 2" opening to feed the elastic into.

Sew another row of stitching 1/2" from the top of the skirt.

Inserting the elastic:
I cut the elastic about 1" to 1.5" shorter than the waist measurement.

Attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic.

Feed the elastic into the casing through the opening, making sure you leave the end sticking out of the opening.

Remove the safety pin and stitch the elastic ends together. Overlap about 1".

Push the ends back into the casing.

Spread out the elastic so it is even all the way around.

Stitch the gap closed.

Sew through the casing and elastic at the side seams. This will prevent the elastic from twisting in the casing.

Determine the length:

Ruffle + skirt = length from waist to calf

Decide how wide the ruffle will be.

Cut the skirt to the desired length.

Cut extra for seam allowances and hem.

Ruffle:

Cut the ruffle 1.5 to 2 x the width of the skirt. Mine is 1.5 x the width.

On the right side of the skirt, sew a row of stitching about 1/8" from the seam. This will hold the seam in place and gives a nice finish.

Hem the bottom edge of the ruffle:

Turn under 1/4" and either press or stitch.

Turn under 1/2" and stitch.

Buttons:
As they are only decorative, I have chosen buttons which are obviously larger than the original buttons. These buttons came from a pre-loved cardigan, which is now in the dress up box. Sew the buttons onto the buttonhole placket, covering the buttonholes.

Your refashion is finished!

Thanks for all the input on my post about inches or centimetres. The measurements in this tutorial are not critical and can be varied. I'll write a separate follow up post. In the meantime, here's a link to an online converter.

Wow, What can I said!! I love your proyect, this transformation is fantastic, you'll never cease to marvel us with your creations. Thanks for sharing your tutorial with us.You did a beautiful job!!!!Marisa

That is so cute. Thank you for sharing. Visiting from A Creative Princess. Would love it if you would share this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/2012/09/make-it-pretty-monday-week-13.html Hope to see you at the bash! Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

fantastic! the fact that those pintucks are all in different thread colours just adds to the flair of the skirt! you would never know it had once lived the life of a man's shirt! fab tutorial! thanks for sharing x

what is the size range? Is this a toddler skirt...or could it be made for size 8 and up girls? I also suspect it depends on the size of the mens shirt????Like the idea, and I know good will sells the shirts for under $5 a shirt! Thanks for info

Depends on the size of the original shirt, as to whether the skirt will fit. You may need an XL to fit an 8yr old. Take the hip measurement of the child. As long as the width of the shirt is more than the hip measurement you will be alright, as far as pulling the skirt on, but extra width is needed for gathers. Ideally, you want 1 and 1/2 to 2 times the waist width for full gathers. If you don't have enough width, you can always add an insert at the side seams, using fabric from the sleeves. To add extra length, vary the width of the ruffle.